Peter Sagan (Cannondale) took his second victory in this year's Tirreno-Adriatico by easily outsprinting Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) in a three-man sprint. Behind leader Chris Froome (Sky) fought spectacularly to limit his losses, but ended up losing the leader's jersey to Nibali on an extremely dramatic stage.

Attacks from Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) and Alberto Contador (Team Saxo-Tinkoff) might have been expected, but few expected the drama which took place during today's stage 6 of Tirreno-Adriatico. On a route littered with short, extremely steep climbs - some riders even had to walk in places - the defending champion Nibali took things into his own hands and put in a furious attack on the penultimate of those difficulties.

Behind this acceleration, leader Chris Froome cracked spectacularly, and he fought valiantly just to keep in contact with a second chase group containing a number of his GC rivals. Nibali was joined by Peter Sagan on the descent before Joaquin Rodriguez managed to close the gap on the last steep climb of the day. With Sagan going for the stage victory and Nibali and Rodriguez fighting for crucial seconds in the GC, cooperation in the 3-man group was perfect, and there was never any doubt that they would go all the way to the finish.

In between the front trio and the Froome group, a strong quartet of Chris Horner (Radioshack), Alberto Contador (Team Saxo-Tinkoff), Samuel Sanchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Mauro Santambrogio (Vini Fantini) fought hard to keep the growing group of chasers at bay, but they struggled to make any inroads on the strong trio in the front. With Froome unable to contribute to the pace in his group, he was aided by the presence of several GC riders all fighting to get back on.

As the trio entered the finishing straight, it was no surprise to see Sagan easily outsprint his rivals to take his second win in the race and his fourth triumph of the season. The Contador group just managed to hold off the Froome group as they passed the finish line 44 seconds in arrears while an embattled Froome rolled a further 6 seconds later.

With his impressive display of strength, Nibali fought back after a disappointing performance in Sunday's stage to take over the lead. He takes a lead of 34 seconds over Froome into tomorrow's final time trial with Rodriguez a further 3 seconds behind. With the time trial just 9 km long, the Italian shark looks poised for second victory in the race of the two seas.

A strong break forces Sky to chase

The undulating profile of the 209 km stage made today's leg an obvious choice for opportunists aiming at a successful breakaway. Hence, Sky were in for a hectic start to the stage where they had to make sure that the numerous attacks did not create a big group containing any potential GC threats.

As the race settled after a frantic first hour, the British team failed in their mission. A 16 rider breakaway was up the road, and in there was Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r-La Mondiale) who was just 3 minutes behind Froome prior to the stage. As he was joined by teammate Matteo Montaguti and strong riders Lars Boom (Blanco), Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel), Angel Vicioso (Katusha), Damiano Cunego (Lampre), Benat Intxausti, Giovanni Visconti (both Movistar), Daryl Impey, Stuart O'Grady (both Orica-GreenEdge), Fabian Cancellara (Radioshack), Tom Dumoulin, Matthieu Sprick (both Argos-Shimano), Paul Voss (NetApp-Endura), Mirko Selvaggi (Vacansoleil) and Mauro Finetto (Vini Fantini), it was a tough ask for Sky to keep the gap down.

With strong pace-making by Christian Knees, Salvatore Puccio and Dario Cataldo they managed to keep the advantage at around 3 minutes for most of the stage. However, it meant for a day with hard tempo in pouring rain, and the peloton was gradually reduced as the day went on. With just a short time trial tomorrow left, a number of riders chose to abandon, among those Andy Schleck (Radioshack) and Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step).

The break is gradually absorbed

Passing a number of difficult climb with around 45 km remaining the break disintegrated. In a number of steps a 7-man front containing Cunego, Dumoulin, Intxausti, Visconti, Impey, Selvaggi and Martinez emerged at the head of the peloton while their former companions were reeled in by the now drastically reduced peloton. Cataldo finally had to let go, and it was now left to Sergio Henao to keep up the pace.

All day a strong Cannondale representation was seen surrounding Sagan near the front of the peloton. As soon as the group entered at flatter section of the course with 40 km to go, they lined up at the head of the peloton to take advantage of the easier terrain to catch the break. Aided by Vini Fantini - working for Santambrogio - they managed to bring back all but Intxausti on the penultimate climb of the day with less than 20 kilometers remaining. Intxausti fought on valiantly on the extremely steep slopes, and he managed to pass the top of the climb in the lead.

Nibali attacks

Behind the maximum gradient of 27% meant that the group completely disintegrated. Both Froome and Contador were seen struggling while up ahead Nibali put in a furious attack. He used his fantastic descending skills to further open up the gap as he joined Intxausti after the top, and they were later joined by two other formidable descenders, Sanchez and Sagan. Behind a formidable chase group was created, but one man was missing: overall leader Froome.

On the last climb of the day, Intxausti finally had to succumb, and he was - alongside Sanchez - dropped as Nibali set a furious pace. Sagan clinched to the wheel of the Astana rider while behind Rodriguez put in one of his trademark accelerations to close the gap in a matter of seconds. The three men crested the summit with a comfortable lead on a chase group of Horner, Santambrogio and Sanchez with Contador just latching on over the top of the climb.

Left was just the final 10 flat kilometers towards the finish, and it was the scene of a dramatic pursuit. However, both chase groups failed to make any inroads on the front group, and in the end Sagan took another formidable victory - marking himself out as the obvious favourite for Milan-Sanremo - while his former teammate took advantage of their cooperation in the final kilometer to create the perfect position ahead of tomorrow's final time trial.

Result
1 Peter Sagan - Cannondale
2 Vincenzo Nibali - Astana
3 Joaquim Rodriguez - Katusha
4 Mauro Santambrogio - Vini Fantini
5 Samuel Sanchez - Euskaltel-Euskadi
6 Chris Horner - RadioShack-Leopard
7 Alberto Contador - Team Saxo - Tinkoff

General classification
1 Vincenzo Nibali - Astana
2 Chris Froome - Sky 0.34
3 Joaquim Rodriguez - Katusha 0.37
4 Alberto Contador - Team Saxo - Tinkoff 0.48
5 Michal Kwiatkowski - Omega Pharma - Quick Step 0.58
6 Chris Horner - RadioShack-Leopard 1.05
7 Mauro Santambrogio - Vini Fantini 1.20
8 Przemyslaw Niemiec - Lampre-Merida 2.54
9 Andrey Amador - Movistar 2.58
10 Wout Poels - Vacansoleil-DCM 3.08